How to Calculate Area of Floor

Use the area of a floor when figuring out the free space in a room or when purchasing floor covering. Avoid buying too much or too little material to recover a floor. Measuring the dimensions of a room is not always enough, sometimes you need to subtract the amount of space taken up by islands in kitchens or fireplaces in living rooms.

Instructions

1. Draw a rough sketch of the room. Include on the drawing any fixed pieces of furniture, fireplaces or areas that could otherwise be excluded from available floor area. If the layout of the room is not perfectly square or rectangular, mark all the dimensions that you need to measure to find the area of the floor.

2. Measure each of the distances that you marked on the drawing in step one. As you make the measurements, record them on the drawing. When you are finished, take the time to convert each distance to a number of feet rather than number of inches. Calculate this by dividing the number of inches by twelve.

3. Determine the total area of the floor. Add together the individual pieces of the floor. You can find the area of each piece by multiplying the length by the width. When you have all the pieces calculated, add them together to get the total floor area. To find the usable floor area of a room, subtract the used or occupied parts of the room from the total area. The value of area will be in square feet.